Tag: Exponents

Let’s do another example using logarithms. As seen in my last post, logarithms are useful when the unknown variable in an equation is in the exponent of some number. But the exponent can be more than just the unknown – it can be an expression with an unknown. Consider the following problem:

\[
{10}^{{3}{x}{+}{7}}\hspace{0.33em}{=}\hspace{0.33em}{125}
\]

So the first step, as seen last time, is to take the log of both sides of the equation. We then can use the property of logs that was introduced: \[ {\log}_{a}{b}^{x}\hspace{0.33em}{=}\hspace{0.33em}{x}\hspace{0.33em}{\log}_{a}{b} \]

Now let’s stop here. The log of 125 is done on your calculator. What about the log of 10? Well that can be done on your calculator as well, but if you’ve been paying attention, you can see that the answer is 1. 1 is the exponent of 10 to make 10? = 10. So now we have a standard (non-exponential) equation:

We have solved equations like this before, so without going into the detail, the solution to this is x = -1.6344. You can put this value of x in the left side of the original equation and find that it does solve it.

In my next post, I will present another property of logs and use it to solve a population problem.

So we know how to solve x2 = 10 by taking the square root of both side of the equation to get x = ±3.162… Note that taking the square root of x2 undoes or reverses the squaring of x.

But what do you do if x is in the exponent and not the base?

\[
{2}^{x}\hspace{0.33em}{=}\hspace{0.33em}{10}
\]

You can’t take the xth root since you don’t know what x is. So what to do? From my last post, you saw that log2 10 means “what is the number that I can use as the exponent of 2 so that the answer is 10”. So in the above equation, if I take the log2 of both sides, I get

The left side of this equation is doing two inverse operations on the number 2 – raising 2 to a power then taking its log. In other words, the left side can be seen as saying “what is the number that I can use as the exponent of 2 so that the answer is 2x ?”. Well the answer to that question is x. So the left side is just x and the right side is just a calculation:

Well that’s just dandy! Trouble is, without the internet, how do you find log2 10? I have not seen a calculator with a log2x button. As mentioned in my last post, calculators usually have buttons to take logs relative to bases 10 and e. Well fortunately, there are lots of properties of logs that can help. The one we can use here is

This means that I can take the log with respect to any base, and the x can be removed as the exponent. So for our problem, let’s take the log10 (the log x key on your calculator) of both sides and see what happens:

Let’s stop here for a moment before I complete the solution. Why is the right side equal to 1? Log10 10 is saying “what power of 10 equals 10?”. The answer is 1 because 101 = 10. On the left side, I used to log property above to bring the x in front of the log. Now log10 2 is just a number. You can use the log x key on your calculator to find that log10 2 = 0.3010 to four decimal places. So now the equation becomes

So what is a logarithm? Let’s first see the notation, then I will explain. When taking the log (short for logarithm which I will use from now on) of a number, you need to know what base is being used. The notation for the log of x is logax. The a is the base and is usually a specified number. so examples using this notation are log2 10, log10 25, log18 145, loge 7.34. Let’s look at these.

log2 10 is asking the question “What number can I use as the exponent of 2 so that the answer is 10?”. It turns out that 23.321928094887 = 10 so log2 10 = 3.321928094887.

log10 25 is asking the question “What number can I use as the exponent of 10 so that the answer is 25?”. Well, 101.39794 =25 so log10 25 = 1.39794.

Are you getting the picture? What about log18 145? This is asking the question “What number can I use as the exponent of 18 so that the answer is 145?”. 181.72183 = 145 so log18 145 = 1.72183.

Now let’s look at loge 7.34. This shows that the base or the number we are taking the log of does not have to be an integer. The number e, which I have talked about before, is an irrational number, but it still can be used as a base. In fact, it is probably the most used base. Since e1.99334 = 7.34, then it follows that loge 7.34 = 1.99334.

By the way, on most calculators, the log or log x key assumes that the base is 10. On most calculators as well, ln x means logex. “ln” means “natural log”.

Now logax and ax are inverses of each other. This means that one undoes the other. So if on your calculator, you find ln 7, then take that number and hit the ex key, you get the original 7 back. This works in reverse as well: Find e7 on your calculator, then hit the ln x key. You will again get the 7 back.

Logarithms confuse many of my students so I thought it is time to explain these. I touched on these before on a post about inverse operations, but let’s add some more detail.

Let’s first define some terms here. Consider the expression x2. Here, x is raised to the power of 2. x is the base and 2 is the exponent, power, order, or index. Lots of different terms for the exponent – I will mostly use the term exponent. So the exponent defines what to do with the base.

Now before I talk about logarithms specifically, I want to review what various kinds of exponents mean. I have talked about this before, but these concepts should be fully understood if logarithms are to make sense to you.

Now x2 means x × x. Positive integer exponents means how many times you multiply the base by itself. So in general, for a positive integer m,

xm = x × x × x × x … where x is listed m times.

The special case of when m = 0 is defined as x0 = 1, no matter how small or how large x is. Now what about negative integers?

So a negative exponent is the same as the positive one except it and its base is in the denominator or vice versa. You can freely move a factor that is a base and its exponent between the numerator and the denominator, as long as you change the sign of the exponent.

What about fractional exponents? Let’s start with fractions where “1” is in the numerator. The denominator in a fraction exponent refers to the root of the number. For example,

Now we have not covered irrational exponents like x𝜋. The development of these are a bit more complex so I’ll just say “use your calculator”.

Indeed, you can use your calculator to calculate a number raised to a power if it has a key labelled as “yx” or has a key with the “^” symbol on it. I will leave it to you to find out how to use these keys. If you do not have a fancy calculator, there is always the all-knowing internet.

So we have talked before on how to solve equations like x2 = 16 by taking the square root of both sides of the equation. But how do you solve 2x = 16? Notice that x is now in the exponent. That changes everything as you can’t take the xth root of a number on your calculator……………but can you?

In the next post on this topic, I’ll introduce you to logarithms then later, how they are used.

I said a little about operations that are inverses to each other when I talked about square roots. Operations (or functions on numbers – I may use operations and functions interchangeably) are inverses of each other if those operations, when performed sequentially on a number, result in the original number.

For example, consider the operations of adding, then subtracting 4 to/from a number. Let’s use 5:

5 + 4 = 9, 9 – 4 = 5, the original number. More directly,

5 + 4 – 4 = 5 + 0 = 5

So no surprise, addition and subtraction are inverse operations. It doesn’t matter what the starting number is or the number you are adding or subtracting. In general, if you start with a number x, + y and – y are inverse operations:

x + y – y = x

The order of these operations does not matter – I can first subtract 4 then add 4. Multiplication and division are also inverse operations. For example,

5 × 2 = 10, 10 ÷ 2 = 5 or 5 × 2 ÷ 2 = 5 × 1 = 5

Other less familiar inverse operations are squaring a number and taking a number’s square root. For example, I can square 4 then take it square root or take its square root the square the result and I will get 4 back in either direction:

There are other ones like this as well: cube and cube roots, raise to the fourth power and fourth roots, etc.

Another less well known one, and one that confuses many of my students, is exponential and logarithm operations.

When x is the base and a number, say 2, is in the exponent, as in x², this is a power operation. However, when x is the exponent, and a number called e is in the base, this is called an exponential operation, eˣ.

I won’t spend much time on e, but it is an irrational number like 𝜋 and there are several reasons why it is the ‘base of choice’. So if the operation is to take a number and make it the power of e, you will generate a number. Many calculators have an ‘eˣ.’ key where you can do this. So for example, e² = 7.389 … . What inverse operation can I perform on this number to get the ‘2’ back? This operation is called the log operation.

Now logs can use any base but again, the base e is most commonly used in math. The notation for taking the log of a number is logₑx which is often shortened to ln x. The shorthand ‘ln’ stands for ‘natural log’ as e is a natural base to use in math (topic for another post). If you have an ‘eˣ ‘ key on your calculator, you probably also have an ‘logₑx‘ or ‘ln x‘ key as well.

So what does ‘ln x‘ mean? This operation is asking the mathematical question: “What number do I need to raise e to, so I get x?”. Can you see how this is the opposite of ‘eˣ ‘ where I actually raise e to the x power? So, ln(eˣ) is asking the maths question: “What power do I need to raise e to, so that I get eˣ ?”. Isn’t it obvious that x is the number I have to raise e to, to get eˣ ? So eˣ and ln x are inverse operations. If you take the number we generated before, 7.389 … , and hit the ln x key on your calculator, you will get the original ‘2’ back.

There are many other inverse functions. In trigonometry, the sin x key in your calculator will give the sine of the angle x. Sometimes 𝜃 is used instead of x. The inverse sine, sometimes called the arcsine, is the inverse of this. The notation you may see on your calculator for this operation is ‘ASIN x‘ or ‘SIN ̅¹x‘. SIN ̅¹x is asking the maths question: ” What angle has x as its sine?”. So SIN ̅¹[SIN(x)] is x.

There are inverse functions associated with the other trig functions as well. You will usually see inverse function keys as the same key on a calculator, you just need to hit another key first to activate the inverse definition for the key.

This seems to imply that if you have a base raised to a power and that is again raised to a power, you can simplify this by just multiplying the exponents. This is, in fact, true. You can show this for yourself by expanding

By the way, \[
{x}^{0}\hspace{0.33em}{=}\hspace{0.33em}{1}
\] no matter how small or large x is, except for x = 0. \[
{0}^{0}
\] is not defined and if you try to do it, like dividing by 0, the math police will be knocking on your door.

Two other exponent rules, which you can demonstrate for yourself with simple examples are:

\[
{\left({\frac{2x}{3{y}^{2}}}\right)}^{3}\hspace{0.33em}{=}\hspace{0.33em}\frac{{2}^{3}{x}^{3}}{{3}^{3}{y}^{{2}\times{3}}}\hspace{0.33em}{=}\hspace{0.33em}\frac{8{x}^{3}}{27{y}^{6}}
\] (This problem uses several rules at the same time)

Well you might suspect that there is a connection between the roots of a number and exponents given my last couple of posts, and you would be correct. Now in my post on roots, I limited myself to using numbers that are perfect roots. For example, \[
\sqrt[3]{8}\hspace{0.33em}{=}\hspace{0.33em}{2}
\]. But many roots do not have such a simple answer. You just have to represent it exactly as a root. For example, \[
\sqrt{2}
\] has no simple integer solution. In fact, its decimal equivalent cannot be written down exactly as it is a non-repeating decimal. The answer you get on a calculator is just the first few decimals. \[
\sqrt{2}\] is an example of something called an irrational number. That doesn’t mean you can’t reason with it. It just means you can’t write it down exactly using decimals. You can only exactly represent it as \[
\sqrt{2}
\].

But it is still true that \[
\sqrt{2}\hspace{0.33em}\times\hspace{0.33em}\sqrt{2}\hspace{0.33em}{=}\hspace{0.33em}{2}
\] (ignoring the negative solution for now).

Looks like a number raised to a fraction does have meaning. Now in decimals, this number is 2.82842712475… , which actually goes on forever. But on a calculator, you can get this answer by first raising 2 to the “3” power then taking the square root of the result, or first take the square root of 2 then raise the result to the “3” power. In general:

Now so far, I have limited myself to using positive integers as the exponents. It turns out that any number can be used as an exponent but it is not clear what a negative or non-integer exponent means. Let’s first look at negative integer exponents.

In the division example above with the base “3”, I specifically put the “3” with the larger exponent in the numerator. What if I reversed these:

This suggests that \[
{3}^{{-}{1}}\hspace{0.33em}{=}\hspace{0.33em}\frac{1}{{3}^{1}}
\] and this is correct. A negative exponent of a base means the equivalent to the same base to the positive exponent in the denominator. It actually works in the other direction as well. You can move factors between the numerator and denominator as long as you change the sign of the exponent:

Now before I proceed further, after doing things like adding or subtracting a number to both sides of an equation, you start to notice mental shortcuts. For example, adding the 7 to both sides of the equation, effectively is the same as moving the 7 from the left side to the right side and changing the sign. This can be done with any term: move it to the other side of the equation and change the sign. By the way, a term is anything that is added or subtracted to or from the entire side of an equation. I’ll illustrate this further in future equations.

So now we have \[{x}^{2}\hspace{0.33em}{=}\hspace{0.33em}{25}
\]. So how do we get x by itself? From yesterday’s post, we know that:

\[
\sqrt{{x}^{2}}\hspace{0.33em}{=}\hspace{0.33em}{x}
\]

So this suggests that we need to take the square root of both sides of the equation:

Did you remember that taking the square root results in two solutions? If you replace the x in the original equation with either +5 or -5, you will get a true equation 18 = 18.

Now many time the equation comes from a physical problem, like solving for a length. If so, then you can ignore the negative solution as that would not make sense. There are times, however, when the negative solution is the desired one.

In my last post, you saw another maths shortcut – exponents. But I used examples where the exponents were positive integers. It turns out that mathematically, any number, be it negative, fractional, or irrational, can be used as an exponent. Let’s expand our knowledge here by looking at exponents that are not positive integers.

But we know that the same number divided by itself is 1. So it makes sense, and it makes maths consistent, if we define anything raised to the “0” power as 1. That is,

\[
{x}^{0}\hspace{0.33em}{=}\hspace{0.33em}{1}
\] for any number x.

Now let’s go further. What if we have \[
\frac{{x}^{2}}{{x}^{3}}
\]? According to the rule, this is \[
{x}^{{2}{-}{3}}\hspace{0.33em}{=}\hspace{0.33em}{x}^{{-}{1}}
\]. What does a negative exponent mean? Well let’s do the same problem without using the rule: